Resource management method and apparatuses for device to device communications

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure proposes a method for device to device communication and apparatuses using the same. More particularly, the present disclosure proposes a method and apparatuses to manage device to device (D2D) network resources based on maintain a user equipment (UE) network topology. The proposal includes a equipment (UE) requesting an authorization from the network for D2D communication in a licensed frequency spectrum, the UE would then receive through a control node or through another non-mobile UE the authorization which includes an identification (ID) information which allows the UE to engage in D2D communication in the license spectrum even when the UE is outside the range of the serving base station.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of U.S. provisionalapplication Ser. No. 61/639,059, filed on Apr. 26, 2012 and U.S.provisional application Ser. No. 61/639,107, filed on Apr. 27, 2012. Theentirety of the above-mentioned patent application is herebyincorporated by reference herein and made a part of specification.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure proposes a resource management method for deviceto device communications and apparatuses using the same.

BACKGROUND

Device to Device (D2D) communications is a technology which allows UEs(User Equipment) to directly communicate among each other without havingan eNB's (enhanced NodeB or eNodeB) to constantly forwarding data inbetween. A traditional cellular communications system such as the LTEsystem would typically only allow signaling to be exchanged between UEand base station while direct exchanges among UEs themselves are not yetdefined, and therefore, D2D communications at this point in time is notyet feasible in an LTE communications system. Currently, even though UEsin an LTE system could be situated right next to each other, the UEswould still be required to go through the network entry procedurethrough a base station, which would forward each and every data sent byone UE to another UE. Therefore, various schemes for directcommunications among UEs are currently being proposed.

There are various D2D communications schemes but D2D resource managementschemes would be required on a licensed band. If a user operates on anunlicensed band, the user could communicate with each other withoutauthorization by using meanings such, for example: WiFi, Bluetooth.However, if a user communicates on a licensed band, the user wouldrequire an authorization from the spectrum owner to communicate withother users directly. Therefore, a D2D radio resource management schemewould be required to effectively perform network management functionssuch as resource leasing, charging, priority management, and so forth.Therefore, in the present disclosure, a method and apparatuses would beproposed to perform D2D radio resource management.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure proposes a method for device to devicecommunication and apparatuses using the same. More particularly, thepresent disclosure proposes a method and apparatuses to manage D2Dnetwork resources based on a network topology.

The present disclosure proposes a resource management method for deviceto device (D2D) communication in a network, adapted for a user equipment(UE), and the method includes the steps of requesting from the networkan authorization for D2D communication in a licensed frequency spectrum,receiving the authorization for D2D communication in the licensedfrequency spectrum, wherein the authorization comprises anidentification (ID) information, and engaging in the D2D communicationin the licensed frequency spectrum.

The present disclosure proposes a resource management method for deviceto device (D2D) communication in a network, adapted for a control node,and the method includes the steps of receiving a request for anauthorization for D2D communication in a licensed frequency spectrum,delivering the request for the authorization for the D2D communicationto the network, receiving the authorization for the D2D communication inthe licensed frequency spectrum from the network, wherein theauthorization comprises an identification (ID) information, andtransmitting a first message comprising the authorization for D2Dcommunication in the licensed frequency spectrum.

In order to make the aforementioned features and advantages of thepresent disclosure comprehensible, preferred embodiments accompaniedwith figures are described in detail below. It is to be understood thatboth the foregoing general description and the following detaileddescription are exemplary, and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the disclosure as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitutea part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of thedisclosure and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the disclosure.

FIG. 1A illustrates system architecture for D2D communications inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 1B illustrates a UE in accordance with one of the exemplaryembodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1C illustrates a control node in accordance with one of theexemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2A illustrates a geographical zone based radio resource managementmethod in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2B illustrates an extended geographical zone based radio resourcemanagement method in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 2C illustrates a predefined geographical zone based radio resourcemanagement method in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 3A illustrates a resource allocation method based on time slots inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3B illustrates a resource allocation method based on transmissionbandwidth in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 3C illustrates a resource allocation method with random back-offwindow size in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary system which shows mobile and non-mobileD2D devices.

FIG. 5A is a flow charting summarizing the proposed D2D resourcemanagement method from the view point of a control node.

FIG. 5B is a flow charting summarizing the proposed D2D resourcemanagement method from the view point of a user equipment.

FIG. 6 illustrates the concept of a network topology based managementfor non-mobile D2D devices.

FIG. 7 illustrates D2D communication assisted proximity indication inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 8A-8B illustrate remote topology maintenance by a data center inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 9A-9B illustrate a network entry procedure in accordance with oneof the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9C illustrates a neighbouring detection procedure in accordancewith one of the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9D illustrates a network update procedure in accordance with one ofthe exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9E illustrates a neighbouring table in accordance with one of theexemplary embodiments of the present application.

FIG. 10A illustrates a device position reporting method to a server inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentapplication.

FIG. 10B illustrates a device position reporting method to anotherdevice in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent application.

FIG. 10C illustrates a device position reporting method for a group ofdevices in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent application.

FIG. 11 is a flow charting illustrating network topology basedmanagement method from the view point of a user equipment in accordancewith one of the exemplary embodiments of the present application.

FIG. 12 is a flow charting illustrating the proposed D2D resourcemanagement method from the view point of a control node in accordancewith one of the exemplary embodiments of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DISCLOSED EMBODIMENTS

In this disclosure, 3GPP-like keywords or phrases are used merely asexamples to present inventive concepts in accordance with the presentdisclosure; however, the same concept presented in the disclosure can beapplied to any other systems such as IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, WiMAX,and so like by persons of ordinarily skilled in the art.

While a UE can be configured to directly communicate with another UE, aUE communicating over a licensed band would require authorization fromthe spectrum owner of the license band in order to communicate withother UEs directly. Therefore, UEs communicating in a D2D mode wouldstill need to attach to a network which belongs to the spectrum owner ofthe license band in order to acquire the proper authorization and toobtain radio resources. Thus, a resource management method andapparatuses operating within a network are proposed to implementresource leasing, charging, and priority management. The proposed methodwould first include a way to perform an access authorization so that auser could obtain the permission to communicate with other usersdirectly on a licensed spectrum. After the user has been authorized, theproposed method would allocate D2D resources. The proposed method wouldalso include a way to enhance resource management by maintaining anetwork topology so that D2D communications may even extend beyond thecoverage of a base station.

FIG. 1A illustrates an overall architecture for managing D2Dcommunications in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments ofthe present disclosure. In the proposed system architecture, one or moreUEs could be attached to the network through one or more control nodesto obtain authorization and radio resources. For instance, UEs (111˜116)could be attached to the network through control nodes (101˜107). Morespecifically, a single UE 111 could be attached to the network through acontrol node 101, multiple UEs such as 113 and 114 could be attached tothe network through a control node 104, or a single UE 112 could beattached to the network through multiple control nodes such as 102 and103.

A control node in this disclosure would be referred to as a base station(BS) or an eNB. It should be noted that the references of such aremerely exemplary and therefore do not serve as limitations to the typeof control nodes as it would be apparent to those skilled in the artthat other types of control node could be selected to achieve networkcontrol purposes such as an advanced base station (ABS), a basetransceiver system (BTS), an access point, a home base station, a relaystation, a scatterer, a repeater, an intermediate node, an intermediary,and/or satellite-based communications base stations. A control node mayinclude entities such as a Mobility Management Entity (MME), a ServingGateway (S-GW), a Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW), a Serving GPRSSupport Node (SGSN), a Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), a MobileSwitching Center (MSC), and a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) or a nodemaintaining a database related to subscriber information.

A control node may be represented by at least the functional elements asillustrated in FIG. 1B in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure. Each control node 101 may contain at least but notlimited to a transceiver circuit 103, an analog-to-digital(A/D)/digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 104, a processing circuit 106,optionally a memory circuit 105, and one or more antenna units 102. Thetransceiver circuit 103 transmits downlink signals and receives uplinksignals wirelessly. The transceiver circuit 103 may also performoperations such as low noise amplifying, impedance matching, frequencymixing, up or down frequency conversion, filtering, amplifying, and solike. The analog-to-digital (A/D)/digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 104is configured to convert from an analog signal format to a digitalsignal format during uplink signal processing and from a digital signalformat to an analog signal format during downlink signal processing.

The processing circuit 106 is configured to process digital signal andto perform procedures of the proposed method for bit adaptive precodingmatrix indicator feedback mechanism in accordance with exemplaryembodiments of the present disclosure. Also, the processing circuit 106may optionally be coupled to a memory circuit 105 to store programmingcodes, device configurations, a codebook, buffered or permanent data,etc. The functions of the processing circuit 106 may be implementedusing programmable units such as a micro-processor, a micro-controller,a DSP chips, FPGA, etc. The functions of the processing circuit 106 mayalso be implemented with separate electronic devices or ICs, and theprocessing circuit may also be implemented with either hardware orsoftware.

The term “user equipment” (UE) in this disclosure could representvarious embodiments which for example could include but not limited to amobile station, an advanced mobile station (AMS), a server, a client, adesktop computer, a laptop computer, a network computer, a workstation,a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet personal computer (PC), ascanner, a telephone device, a pager, a camera, a television, ahand-held video game device, a musical device, a wireless sensor, and solike. In some applications, a UE may be a fixed computer deviceoperating in a mobile environment, such as a bus, train, an airplane, aboat, a car, and so forth.

A UE may be represented by at least the functional elements asillustrated in FIG. 1C in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of thepresent disclosure. Each UE 111 of the communications system may containat least but not limited to a transceiver circuit 113, ananalog-to-digital (A/D)/digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 114, aprocessing circuit 116, optionally a memory circuit 115, and one or moreantenna units 112. The memory circuit 115 may store programming codes,device configurations, buffered or permanent data, codebooks, etc. Theprocessing circuit 116 may also be implemented with either hardware orsoftware. The function of each element of a UE 111 is similar to acontrol node 101 and therefore detailed descriptions for each elementwill not be repeated.

Referring back to FIG. 1A, the control nodes (101˜107) of FIG. 1A maycommunicate with spectrum owner/charging center server 120 whichperforms the function of spectrum leasing and charging. The spectrumowner/charging center server 120 may communicate and negotiate with atransaction center 130 through which service providers (e.g. themilitary 140, emergency service 150, and other services 160) external tothe network may obtain permissions from the spectrum owner/chargingserver 120 to authorize D2D UEs belonging to the service providers foraccess. An example of a charging center server 120 in the case for theLTE could be the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) node which isresponsible for quality-of-service (QoS) handling and charging, and thePCRF node is coupled to a Home Subscriber Service (HSS) node from whicha database containing subscriber information could be obtained. Thedetailed operating principle would be as follows.

Before a UE could engage in a D2D communications with another UE, the UEwould first need to obtain authorization from the spectrumowner/charging server through a control node. One way of implementingthe device authorization for D2D communications could be to adopt ageographical zone based radio resource management method. FIG. 2Aillustrates the geographical zone based radio resource management methodin accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In this proposed geographical zone based radio resourcemanagement method, multiple geographical zones are defined by aplurality of control nodes. A geographical zone is defined as aterritory carved out by at least three control nodes as logically itwould take at least three vertices, or three points, to form a non-zerotwo dimensional area. The plurality of the at least three control nodestogether would further determine whether a geographical zone defined bythe at least three control nodes is a valid D2D zone or is an invalidD2D zone. Within a valid D2D zone, UEs may engage in D2D communicationswith other UEs, and the UEs may also engage in D2D communications withother UE across different valid geographical zones. For more specificdetail, please refer to the following example.

In the exemplary scenario of FIG. 2A, multiple geographic zones 221˜225are defined by a plurality of control nodes 201˜209. Within the multiplegeographical zones, there could be valid regions (VR) 221 222 224 andinvalid regions (IR) 223 225. In general, a valid region is a regionwhich may allow a device to communicate with at least one other devicedirectly. In an invalid region, a device may not communicate withanother device directly but may only communicate through a control nodeor coordinator. In each of the control node defined geographic zones221˜225, the control nodes which define each region determines whetherthe region is valid or invalid according to a rule. Control nodes201˜209 would indicate whether any one of the control nodes 201˜209would allow or not allow the D2D communication.

According to one exemplary embodiment, if all control nodes which formsa region indicate that they would each individually allow the D2Dcommunication, then the region is considered a valid region. Forexample, the region 221 is a valid region 221 because the region isdefined by control nodes 201, 202, 204, 205, and 206, and all of thecontrol nodes 201, 202, 204, 205, and 206 indicate that they would allowthe D2D communication. On the contrary, a region is considered aninvalid D2D region if any one of the control nodes which together definethe region indicates that it would not allow the D2D communication. Forexample, the region 223 is an invalid region 223 because the controlnode 207 indicates that it would not allow the D2D communications eventhough other control nodes 205, 206, and 208 indicate that they wouldallow the D2D communication.

A similar principle applies for the valid region 222 and the validregion 224. In the valid region 222, all control nodes 202˜204 whichdefine the region 222 indicate that they would allow the D2Dcommunication. Also in the valid region 224, all control nodes 204, 205,and 208 which define the region 224 indicate that they would allow theD2D communication. However, the region 225 is an invalid region 225because the control node 209 indicates that it would not allow the D2Dcommunications even though other control nodes 203 204 and 208 whichdefine the region indicate that they would allow the D2D communication.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a valid region could bedefined by having less than all of the control nodes indicating thatthey would allow the D2D communications in the region in which all ofthe control nodes would together define. An invalid region could bedefined by having two or more control nodes indicating that they wouldnot allow the D2D communications in the region in which all of thecontrol nodes would together define.

A region could be calculated by the coordinates of the coordinatorswhich together define the region. For instance, in the valid region 224,the region could be defined according to the geographical coordinatesuch as the latitude and the longitude of each of the control nodes orcoordinators 204 205 and 208. After obtaining the geographicalcoordinate of each of the control nodes 204 205 and 208, whether adevice is in the region or out of the region could easily be calculatedby the device itself or by any of the control node or by the spectrumowner/charging server 120.

A valid region could be extended based on the range of the radiocoverage of each of the control nodes or coordinators. For instance, ifa device is adequately under the RF range of an allowed coordinatoroutside a boundary of a valid region, the device could still beconsidered to be situated in the valid region, and thus the device couldcommunicate with other devices in the valid region or across the validregion to another valid region.

FIG. 2B illustrates an extended geographical zone based radio resourcemanagement method in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments ofthe present disclosure. In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2B, a groupof control nodes 231˜235 or coordinators define a geographical zone 238.Suppose that the boundary 239 is the maximum extend of which the radiocoverage of the group of control nodes 231˜235 could provide. Betweenthe boundary 239 and the geographical zone 238 lies the extendedgeographical zone 240 which is considered an extension of thegeographical zone 238 and thus for all practical purpose would beconsidered the same region as the geographical zone 238. The implicationis that a UE 236 in the geographical zone 238 could communicate withanother UE 237 in the extended geographical zone 240 since the UE 236 isin the geographical zone 238 and UE 237 is in the coverage of controlnode 234. Also, the status of validity or invalidity would also beconsistent between the geographical zone 238 and the extendedgeographical zone 240.

FIG. 2C illustrates a predefined geographical zone based radio resourcemanagement method in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments ofthe present disclosure. For the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2C, apredefined geographical zone 248 is defined according to the absolutegeographical coordinates (e.g. longitude & latitude) of the zones.Within the territory carved out by the predefined geographical zone 248,any area within the territory would be considered the same zoneregardless of the location in which the control nodes 241˜245 aresituated. A UE 246 would be able to communicate directly with another UE247 if the zone is determined by the group of control nodes 241˜245 asvalid.

The geographical zone could be predefined for a group of D2D deviceswhich subscribe a service to be allowed communicating on the predefinedarea. FIG. 3 illustrates an example. The D2D device could calculate itsposition to check if the device in pre-defined geographical zone. If theD2D device is in the pre-defined geographical zone, the D2D device couldperform direct communications.

Based on the aforementioned geographical zone defined by a combinedgroup of coordinating control nodes, UEs must first be validated by anetwork according to their geographical zones before they could engagein D2D communications. The present disclosure proposes three approachesfor a D2D device to validate whether it is in an allowed graphical zone.

The first approach is a D2D device calculation approach. For thisapproach, A D2D device would first acquire locations of control nodeswhich define the current geographical zone in which the D2D device islocated. Based on the locations of these control nodes, the D2D devicewould calculate if it is located in a valid region according to thegeographical coordinates of these coordinators.

The second approach is a D2D device reporting approach. For thisapproach, a D2D device would report its current location to a controlnode. The control node would then verify if the D2D device belongs to avalid region. If the D2D device belongs to the valid region, the devicewould be informed by the network that it is allowed for the D2Dcommunication.

The third approach is a network positioning approach. For this approach,a D2D device would send a pilot signal to one or more control nodesnearby. The control nodes nearby would estimate the timing of thearrival of the pilot signal to estimate the distances between the one ormore control nodes and the D2D device. The control nodes could thencalculate the location of this D2D device based on the estimateddistance. If the location of the D2D device is found to belong to avalid region, then D2D device would be informed by the network that itis allowed for the D2D communication.

After a D2D device is validate for D2D communication, the network wouldthen implement resource leasing and charging. The present disclosureproposes two approaches. The first approach is a D2D device orientedapproach; and the second approach is a service provider orientedapproach. Referring back to FIG. 1A, for the first approach, UEs 111˜116(i.e. at least any one of them) would first access a control node torequest for the radio resources. Assuming that the UEs 111˜116 is foundto be in a valid geographical region, the control node would thenrequest from a spectrum owner/charging server 120 for its permission toaccess the network. The spectrum owner/charging server 120 would thendetermine whether it would allow the UEs 111˜116 for the D2Dcommunication. Furthermore, the spectrum owner/charging server 120 maysend requests to other entities or services (e.g. military 140,emergency service 150, and other services 160) through a transactioncenter 130 to negotiate whether the UEs 111˜116 belongs to a subscribedservice of these entities or services. If the UEs 111˜116 belongs to asubscribed service, then the UEs 111˜116 may communicate with other D2DUEs 111˜116.

The second approach is a service provider oriented approach. For thisapproach, UEs 111˜116 may request for permission and resource to engagein D2D communications through a service provider (e.g. military 140,emergency service 150, and other services 160). The service provide mayrequest the D2D communications service through the spectrumowner/charging server 120 by negotiating with the spectrumowner/charging server 120 through the transaction center 130. Thespectrum owner/charging center 130 would determine whether the UEs111˜116 subscribed to the service provider (e.g. 140, 150, 160) andwould authorize UEs 111˜116 belonging to the service provider tocommunicate through the spectrum which belongs to the spectrum owner120. UEs 111˜116 may access a control node 101˜107 to request for radioresources. The control node 101˜107 would then request from the spectrumowner/charging server 120 for the permission to communicate in D2D mode.The spectrum owner would then authorize the spectrum usage for the UEs111˜116 which has subscribed to a server.

As far as charging is concerned, a UE which is authorized to communicatedirectly with another UE in the D2D mode could be charged and givenradio resources according to the amount of time and/or frequency usage.A UE may also be charged according to priority or the number ofavailable contention slots.

For an exemplary embodiment, the present disclosure proposes that theresource allocation could be based on time slots. For the time slotsbased resource allocation, a frame structure may be partitioned intomultiple time slots (The time slot 301 is one of such time slots).Charging and resource allocation could be based on allocated time slots.FIG. 3A illustrates a resource allocation method based on time slots inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure. For the exemplary embodiment, it is supposed that a superframe 300 is composed of a total of 8 slots. Also, it is supposed thatthe slot marked by “1” occurs once every superframe. The slot marked by“2” occurs twice every superframe. The slots marked by 1 or 2 couldeither repeat in a fixed pattern for every superframe, or the patterncould vary among different superframes. Therefore, if a user pays more,the user could transmit on the slots marked by 2. If a user pays less,the user could transmit on the slot marked by 1.

For an exemplary embodiment, the amount of transmission bandwidth couldbe allocated according to the price for which a user is willing to pay.The higher the price a user is willing to pay, the larger bandwidthcould be allocated. FIG. 3B illustrates a resource allocation methodbased on transmission bandwidth in accordance with one of the exemplaryembodiments of the present disclosure. Supposedly that a time slot 302could be divided into at least three slots. The block marked by 1 pertime slot could occur twice every time slot, and the block marked 2would occur at most once every time slot. If a user pays more, the usercould transmit on the slots marked by 1. For a user pays less, the usercould transmit on the slot marked by 2.

For an exemplary embodiment, the backoff window size could be a variablewhich decides how much a user could also be charged. A contention-basedmechanism would normally rely on the backoff window to resolvecontention collision for the random access process. The more a user iswilling to pay, the smaller the random backoff window size would become.FIG. 3C illustrates a resource allocation method with random back-offwindow size in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent disclosure. FIG. 3C shows three random back-off window sizes304, 305, and 306. A user who is the most willing to pay would enjoy thesmallest backoff window size 304, and likewise, A user who pays theleast would have the longest backoff window size 306.

Various embodiments could be proposed for different priority schemes.For instance, the number of contention slots could be based on how mucha user is willing to pay. A user who is willing to pay more would enjoya higher number of contention slots. For another embodiment, the maximumtransmission power could also be determined according to the willingnessof a user to pay. A user who pays more would be allowed to transmit witha higher maximum transmission power. For another embodiment, a usercould be assigned a priority. A user who pays more would be assigned ahigher priority than a user who pays less, and a user with a higherpriority identity would be given a preference to access over a user witha lower priority.

Furthermore, as far as charging and resource allocation is concerned,D2D UEs could be categorized into mobile devices and non-mobile devices.For the D2D UEs which tend to be used as infrastructures and inherentlywithout any mobility such as a smart meter for example, each of the UEscould be allocated with a fixed identity. These non-mobile devices couldbe charged more since they each occupies a fixed identity for a longperiod of time. These identities could be allocated according theservices subscribed by a user. Two or more devices may also share thesame identity in a time division manner in order to reduce the totalnumber of all necessary identities.

For mobile D2D UEs which could migrate from one control node to another,these mobile UEs could be assigned according to temporary identities.Also when one such mobile UE migrate from one control node to anothercontrol node, the mobile UE could change from one temporary identity toanother temporary identity. These mobile D2D UEs could be require toupdate their identities every given time period. Under normalcircumstances, a mobile D2D device is authorized by a mobile identity,and a non-mobile D2D device is authorized a non-mobile identity. Whenthe mobile device is moved to the coverage of another control node, itwould be authorized with another identity which is a mobile identity.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary system which shows mobile and non-mobileD2D devices. In the system, the control nodes 401 402 and 403 providecoverage to mobile UEs 411 412 and non-mobile UEs 406 407. Fornon-mobile D2D UEs, they are authorized with fix identities through thecontrol node 401. For mobile D2D devices 411 and 412 which may hop fromone control node 412 to another control node 402, they could beauthorized from one temporary identity to another temporary identity.

FIG. 5A is a flow charting illustrating the proposed D2D resourcemanagement method from the view point of a control node. In step S501, acontrol node would receive from a user equipment a request tocommunicate in a D2D mode. In step S502, the control node would validatethe user equipment based on the geographical zone in which the userequipment is located after user equipment has requested to communicatein the D2D mode. If the control node determines that the user equipmentis in a valid geographical zone, the user equipment could be authorizedby the spectrum owner to engage in D2D communications using the radioresources of the spectrum owner. In step S503, the control node wouldnotify the user equipment whether the user equipment may communicate inthe D2D mode after the user equipment has been properly authorized. Theuser equipment could then be charged based on any of the aforementionedcharging and leasing schemes.

FIG. 5B is a flow charting illustrating the proposed D2D resourcemanagement method from the view point of a user equipment. In step S551,a user equipment would transmit to a control node a request tocommunicate in a D2D mode. In step S552, the user equipment couldreceive a validation from the control node based on the geographicalzone in which the user equipment is located after user equipment hasrequested to communicate in the D2D mode. If the user equipment has beendetermined to be in a valid geographical zone, the user equipment couldbe authorized by the spectrum owner to engage in D2D communicationsusing the radio resources of the spectrum owner. In step S553, the userequipment would receive a notification from a control node whether theuser equipment may communicate in the D2D mode after the user equipmenthas been properly authorized. The user equipment could then be chargedbased on any of the aforementioned charging and leasing schemes.

For the aforementioned D2D resource management scheme, if a UE isnon-mobile and is located out side the range of the radio coverage ofany control node, a D2D wireless service could still be provided to theUE through a network topology-based management as long as the UE isunder the radio coverage of another non-mobile UE. Also, if a non-mobileUE is located in an invalid geographical zone and therefore cannotengage in the D2D mode of communications with another UE, a D2D wirelessservice could still be provided to the non-mobile UE through the networktopology-based management by attaching the non-mobile UE to a controlnode nearby.

For example, referring back to FIGS. 2A and 2B, if a non-mobile UE werehypothetically located outside the geographical zone formed by thecontrol nodes 201, 202, 203, 209, 208, 207, 206, or if a non-mobile UEwere located outside the outer boundary 239 of the extended geographicalzone, a D2D wireless service could still be provided to the UE through anetwork topology based management as long as the UE is under the radiocoverage of another non-mobile UE. If a non-mobile UE were located in aninvalid region 223 225, or in fact were located in a valid region 221222 224 as well, a D2D wireless service could still be provided to thenon-mobile UE through the network topology based management by attachingthe non-mobile UE to a control node 201˜209 nearby.

The concept of the network topology management method would beelucidated as follows. Referring back to FIG. 4, specifically to thesetup including the control node 401 and the non-mobile UE 407, one ofthe main ideas of the concept of the network topology management methodis that a D2D wireless service could be provided to UEs by having thecontrol node 401 to maintain a topology of UEs in a tree (or chain) likefashion such that if a UE were to fall outside the coverage range of thecontrol node 401, the UE could still communicate in the D2D mode throughanother non-mobile UE which is within the radio range of the controlnode 401 and therefore could act as a relay for the UE outside the rangeof the control node 401.

FIG. 6 further illustrates the concept of a network topology basedmanagement for D2D UEs. Supposedly that the control node 401 couldcommunicate with a non-mobile UE 407 which is within the radio range ofthe control node 401. The non-mobile UE 407 could then act as a relayfor other UEs 451 and 452 to communicate in the D2D mode as long as theUEs 451 and 452 are within the radio range of the UE 451. Since thenon-mobile UE 407 is assigned with a fixed identity, the control nodecould keep track of the non-mobile UE 407 through the fixed identity ofthe non-mobile UE 407. If the UEs 451 and 452 were to be non-mobile, theUEs 451 and 452 would also be assigned with fixed identities.Subsequently, the control node 401 would be able to keep track of thenon-mobile UEs 407, 451, and 452 through their fixed identities.

The UE 451 may even communicate with the UE 452 in the D2D mode throughthe radio coverage of the UE 407 without having the control node 401delivering wireless data constantly in between the non-mobile UEs 451and 452. The UE 407 may also act as a relay between the UE 451 and theUE 452 to facilitate the D2D mode of communications if the UE 451 andthe UE 452 are within the radio coverage of the control node 401.

Similarly, the non-mobile UE 451 and/or the non-mobile UE 452 may act asa relay for the UE 453. In the event that the UE 453 is also non-mobile,the non-mobile UE 453 may in turn act as a relay to provide radiocoverage to a mobile UE 414. Similarly, the non-mobile UE 452 may act asa relay and provide D2D radio coverage to the mobile UE 413. Thus, themobile UE 414 is attached to the control node 401 indirectly through thenon-mobile UEs 453 and 451 as long as the link 401 451 453 and 414 isformed in an unbroken fashion as each node of the link is under adequateradio coverage of a neighboring node. Therefore, for the scenario ofFIG. 6, the control node 401 would keep track of the non-mobile UEs 407,451, 452, and 453 as each of which could serve as a relay to provide D2Dcommunications to other mobile UEs.

For another embodiment, the non-mobile 453 and mobile UE 414 as a unitcould be implemented as an individual private network. Generally, anetwork could assign and keep track of a non-mobile UE through a staticID, and the non-mobile UE could in turn assign IDs to other UEs attachedto the non-mobile UE.

In general, since non-mobile UEs are assigned with fix identities, acontrol node may keep track of these non-mobile UEs. For UEs withnon-mobility identities, a coordinator could acquire network topologythrough D2D UEs which are directly connected to the coordinate as theseUEs are assigned with fixed identities. These UEs could further collectthe identities of the next group of UEs which are connected to them andare assigned fix identities. The above mentioned steps could be repeateduntil the complete network topology of D2D UEs having fix identities isobtained. As for the D2D UEs with temporary identities, they could beappended to UEs with fix identities. Therefore, for non-mobile UEs whichhave been authorized with fixed identities, they could been seen asextensions of a control node by extending the radio coverage of thecontrol node and thus could provide D2D mode of communications to UEsoutside the range of the control node.

Establishing a network topology may require connective relationshipsamong devices, such as a control node, mobile UEs and non-mobile UEs, beknown as well as the locations or the relative locations among thesedevices. The location of a device could be useful to identifyrelationships between a device and its surrounding devices. In general,the absolute position of a UE could be performed by a common positioningdevice such as a global positioning satellite (GPS) positioning device.The absolute location of a control node could be obtained by a GPSpositioning device, or it could be supplied by a network. The locationof a device in relationship to another device (i.e. the relativelocation of a device) could also be calculated and determined Whendevices engage in the D2D mode of communications with one another, theproximity information of each device could be delivered to the network.In other words, the determination of the proximity information of eachdevice could be assisted by D2D communications of these above mentioneddevices.

FIG. 7 illustrates D2D communications assisted proximity indication inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 7 includes a control node 701 which has established awireless connection with a UE 702 which in turns may communicatedirectly with two other UEs 703 704. The UE 702 could report theabsolute position of itself to the control node 701. The UE 702 couldalso report to the control node 701 that it is within radiocommunications ranges of two UEs 703 704. (i.e. the UEs 703 704 are inproximity with the UE 702) The UEs 703 could also report to the controlnode 701 through the relay of the UE 702 its location and whether othernearby UEs are within the radio range of the UE 703. The UEs 704 couldalso report to the control node 701 through the relay of the UE 702 itslocation and whether other nearby UEs are within the radio range of theUE 704. In this way, the control node 701 could maintain a completetopology of D2D devices according to proximity reporting of the UEs.

FIGS. 8A-8B illustrates remote topology maintenance by a data center inaccordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Suppose that there exists a network topology has been formedby a chain of UEs 811˜816 as illustrated in FIG. 8A. In particular, UE811, 812, 814, and 816 are in the radio range of the control node 801 asillustrated in FIG. 8B, the topology could be extended to accommodateUEs 813 and 815 which exist outside the radio range of the control nodeso that all of the UEs 811˜816 could communicate in D2D mode with oneanother through the relays of other non-mobile UEs. The control node 801would maintain the network topology of FIG. 8A after available proximityreporting is received from the UEs 811˜816. The control node 801 wouldthen forward the network topology to a data center 850 in the network.The data center 850 would then maintain a complete network topologyunder the control node 801.

The network topology could be updated as follows. For one embodiment, inresponse to a first device not being able to discover in proximity asecond device which was previously in proximity of the first device andis a part of the network topology, the first device would report to thecontrol node that the second device is not in proximity and hastherefore been missing from the topology. In response to the firstdevice reporting to the control node, the control node would then reportto a data center which would then update the topology accordingly. Forinstance, if the UE 812 is unable to detect the presence of UE 813within the radio range of the UE 812, the UE 812 would then report tothe control node 801 the updated topology. The control node 801 wouldthen forward the information to the data center 850 which would thenupdate the topology to not include the UE 813.

For another exemplary embodiment, a timer could be kept by a controlnode such that when a relationship between two devices no longer existsin the proximity reporting received by the control node, the controlnode would update the topology to no longer include the relationshipafter the relationship has been missing for longer than a predeterminedperiod. For example, a timer could be kept by the control node 801 suchthat when the UE 813 has been missing for a predetermined period such as10 seconds, 45 seconds, or 60 seconds, the UE 813 would be removed fromthe topology, and the control node 801 would forward the updatedtopology to the data center 850 accordingly.

FIG. 9A illustrates a network entry procedure in accordance with one ofthe exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The network entryprocedure could be described as follows. In step S951, a UE enters a D2Dnetwork. In step S952, the network authorizes the UE for D2Dcommunications in the network. In step S953, the UE detects neighboringUEs in the indicated D2D resource. In step 954, the UE reportsneighboring UEs to a control node.

The network entry procedure of FIG. 9A could be elucidated with anexample as illustrated by the scenario of FIG. 9B. In the scenario ofFIG. 9B, it is assumed that the UE 911 enters the D2D network whichincludes a server/cloud 905, a control node, two neighboring UEs 912 and913 which are within the radio range of the UE 911. The server/cloud 905could be the aforementioned spectrum owner/charging server 120, or itcould be an external server (e.g. military 140, emergency service 150,and other services 160) which could negotiate with the spectrumowner/charging server 120 through the transaction center 130. In stepS951, the UE 911 enters a D2D network. In step S952, a networkserver/cloud 905 authorizes the UE 911 for D2D communications in thenetwork. In step S953, the UE 911 detects neighboring UEs, namely, theUE 912 and the UE 913. In step 954, the UE 911 reports neighboring UEs912 913 to a control node 901.

It should be noted that as a network topology is being managed, theprocedures involving authorization and resource allocation would besimilar to the aforementioned procedure as previously disclosed and thusthe actual discussion would not be repeated.

FIG. 9C illustrates a neighboring detection procedure in accordance withone of the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In stepS961, a first UE periodically broadcasts a message which includes an IDof the First UE. In step S962, a second UE within the broadcast range ofthe first UE may receive the message containing the ID. In step S963,the second UE adds the First UE to neighbours list. Referring back tothe example of FIG. 9B together with FIG. 9C, in step S961, the UE 911broadcasts its ID periodically. In step S962, the UE 912 receives thebroadcasted ID of the UE 911. In step S963, the UE 912 adds the UE 911to its neighbours list. Based on the above mentioned neighboringdetection procedure, UE 912 would have UE 911 in its neighbours list,and UE 911 would have UE 912 and UE 913 in its neighbours list.

FIG. 9D illustrates a network update procedure in accordance with one ofthe exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In step S971, a UEperiodically detects neighboring UEs. In step S972, a UE updates itsneighbors UE list after neighboring UEs has been scanned. In step S973,the UE reports the updated neighbors UE list to a control.

According to one exemplary embodiment, a neighbours UE list could becompiled as a neighboring table which would then be sent to a controlnode. FIG. 9E illustrates a neighboring table in accordance with one ofthe exemplary embodiments of the present application. Using the exampleof FIG. 9B, UE 911 would have UE 912 and 913 both marked as a yes sinceboth UE 912 and UE 913 are in the proximity of UE 911. Likewise, UE 912would have UE 911 marked as yes and UE 913 marked as no, and UE 913would have UE 911 marked as yes and UE 912 marked as no.

With the procedures of entry, update, and detection being defined, thenetwork would still need to know the locations of the UE members of atopology in order to authorize and to allocation resources for the D2DUEs. The conventional positioning method usually requires a UE to detectits absolute position in terms of longitude and latitude and report theabsolute position to the network. However, according to the presentdisclosure, a device may only need to know the relative position ofanother device in order to adequately record a network topology. Therelative position between two devices could include distance and angle.For instance, a first UE could be said to be 50 meters away from asecond UE. A first UE could be said to be 5 meters away from a secondUE. A first UE could be said to be 35 degrees from the north of a secondUE. Also the relative position between two devices could include therelative time from one device to travel to another device and therelative direction between two devices. (i.e. one device is in front orback of another device.)

The concept of relative information may also apply to other variablessuch as relative temperature between two devices in the case when onedevice is a thermometer. By transmitting relative temperature of adevice relative to a reference device, a device does not need to knowits temperature in the absolute. Also the concept of relativeinformation may apply to traffic loading in the case when a device is amotor vehicle as the vehicle only need to transmit relative trafficloading information in relationship to a reference vehicle. The relativeinformation may also be used to transmit information such as a carplate. For the case of smart meters, each smart meter could also deliverany information in the relative rather than the absolute.

The advantage of transmitting relative information includes one beingthat applications in a device might not need to know the absoluteposition. Applications such as instant messengers or some socialnetworking applications might not need to know positions in theabsolute. Devices which do not have any positioning hardware couldbenefit from delivering relative information to a neighboring device andthen by relying on the neighboring device to relay to the relativeinformation to an eventual device which would convert the relativeinformation to the absolute. For specific environments such as in atunnel where a device might not receive strong enough signal to performabsolute positioning and would therefore utilize the other devices toobtain or to calculate its own position.

A device could report relative information to a server or to anotherneighboring D2D device in proximity. FIG. 10A illustrates a deviceposition reporting method to a server in accordance with one of theexemplary embodiments of the present application. For this embodiment, afirst UE device calculates and reports to a server. First a server/cloud1001 may optionally request the relative position of a second UE 1011from a first UE 1010. The first UE 1010 would then calculate therelative position of the second UE 1011 and report the relative positionof second UE 1011 to the server/cloud 1001.

For another exemplary embodiment, a second UE may calculate and reportto a server. For instance, the server/cloud 1001 may optionally requestthe position of the second UE 1011 relative to the first UE 1010 and mayonly require such information in the relative. The first UE 1010 wouldthen request from the second UE 1011 the absolute position of the secondUE 1011. The second UE 1011 would then obtain its absolute position andcalculates its position relative to the first UE 1010. The second UE1011 would then send the relative position to the first UE 1010, and thefirst UE 1010 may report the relative position of the second UE 1011relative to the first UE 1010 to the server/cloud 1001.

FIG. 10B illustrates a device position reporting method to anotherdevice in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent application. In this exemplary embodiment, a first devicecalculates and report directly to another device. In the scenario ofFIG. 10B, there are three D2D UEs in proximity of each other, namely, afirst UE 1110, a second UE 1111, and a third UE 1112. First, the thirdUE 1112 optionally requests from the first UE 1110 for the relativeposition of the second UE 1111. The first UE 1110 then calculates therelative position of the second UE 1111 and reports the relativeposition of the second UE 1111 to the third UE 1112.

For another exemplary embodiment, the second UE 1111 may calculates andreport directly to another device. First, the third UE 1112 optionallyrequests relative position of the second UE 1111 relative to the firstUE 1110. The first UE 1110 then requests for the absolute position ofthe second UE 1111. The second UE calculates the absolute position ofthe second UE 1111. The second UE 1111 then calculates the relativeposition of the first UE 1110 based on the absolute position of thesecond UE 1111. The second UE 1111 then sends the relative position tothe first UE 1110. The first UE 1110 then would deliver the relativeposition of the second UE 1111 relative to the first UE 1110 to thethird UE 1112.

FIG. 10C illustrates a device position reporting method for a group ofdevices in accordance with one of the exemplary embodiments of thepresent application. In this exemplary embodiment, after a serveroptionally requests from a group of UEs in proximity, one of the UEsreport positions of all of the UEs in the group to the server. First,the server/cloud 1002 may optionally request from a first UE 1200 forthe absolute position of all the UEs in proximity to the first UE 1200including the second UE 1201, the third UE 1202, and the fourth UE 1203.The first UE 1200 then requests or calculates or collects the absoluteposition of the second UE 1201, the third UE 1202, and the fourth UE1203. The first UE 1200 could then report to the server/cloud 1003 theabsolute position of all the UEs 1200-1203.

For another embodiment, instead of reporting to the server/cloud 1003the raw absolute position of all the UEs 1200˜1203, the first UE 1200could report the data of the absolute position in a compressed form. Thecompressed form essentially takes in the raw data of the absoluteposition and convert the raw absolute data into a relative data inreference to a reference UE. For example, if first UE 1200 is situatedin longitude 25.0392 and latitude 121.525, and the second UE is locatedin longitude 25.0393 and latitude 121.525, the first UE 1200 would onlyneed to report the position of the second UE 1201 as longitude 0.0001and latitude 0 relative to the first UE 1200 such less bits are requiredto represent the positioning data.

FIG. 11 is a flow charting illustrating network topology basedmanagement method from the view point of a user equipment in accordancewith one of the exemplary embodiments of the present application. Instep S2001, a UE requests for authorization from a network through acontrol node. If the UE is within the radio range of the control node,the UE may request for a neighbors list from the control node.Otherwise, the UE may detect the presence of neighboring UEs and utilizea non-mobile UE as a relay to request for the authorization from thenetwork. In step S2002, the UE receives authorization and resourceallocation which includes but not limited to a static ID. In this step,the spectrum owner grants the UE to access the spectrum through thecontrol node, and the UE could be allocated with a static ID if the UEwere non-mobile or a temporarily ID if the UE were mobile. In stepS2003, the UE engages in D2D communications with one or more other UEs.

FIG. 12 is a flow charting illustrating the proposed D2D resourcemanagement method from the view point of a control node in accordancewith one of the exemplary embodiments of the present application. Instep S2011, the control node receives a request for D2D communicationsfrom a UE. The control node could also receive a neighbors list or anupdated neighbors list from the UE. The control could then deliver therequest for the D2D communications for the UE, and the delivery mayinclude an updated network topology to be recorded by a data centerwithin the network. In step S2012, the control node receivesauthorization and resource allocation from the spectrum owner. In stepS2013, the control node transmits to the UE the authorization andresource allocation which includes but not limited to a static ID.

In view of the aforementioned descriptions, the present disclosureproposes a method to achieve D2D communicate resource management suchthat a network could allocate D2D resources to D2D UEs and performsresource leasing and charging. The method includes validating UEs forD2D mode of the communications according to the geographical zones inwhich they are located, performing authorization and resourceallocation, and managing a network topology for UEs such that they couldcommunicate without the assistance of a control node even when they arelocated outside the radio range of a control node.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made to the structure of thedisclosed embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of thedisclosure. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the disclosurecover modifications and variations of this disclosure provided they fallwithin the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A network topology management method for deviceto device (D2D) communication in a network, adapted for a user equipment(UE), and the method comprising: requesting from the network anauthorization for D2D communication in a frequency spectrum; receivingthe authorization for D2D communication in the frequency spectrum;engaging in the D2D communication in the frequency spectrum; detecting aneighboring user equipment in proximity; and reporting the neighboringuser equipment to a control node.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thestep of detecting the neighboring user equipment in proximity furthercomprising: receiving broadcasted information of the user equipment inproximity; and reporting the broadcasted information of the userequipment in proximity to the control node in response to receivingbroadcasted information of the user equipment in proximity.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the authorization comprises an identification(ID) information.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the ID informationcomprises a static ID assigned by the network if the UE is a non-mobile.5. The method of claim 3, wherein the ID information comprises atemporary ID assigned by the network if the UE is mobile.
 6. The methodof claim 4, wherein the non-mobile UE further assigns another static IDto a non-mobile UE or another temporary ID to a mobile UE.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the requesting from the network the authorizationfor D2D communication in the frequency spectrum is through a controlnode if the UE is within a radio range of the control node.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the control node is one of an evolved node B(eNB), a base station, a relay station or a UE.
 9. The method of claim4, wherein the requesting from the network the authorization for D2Dcommunication in the frequency spectrum is through a non-mobile UE ifthe UE is not within the radio range of the control node.
 10. The methodof claim 1 further comprising broadcasting the ID information.
 11. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising detecting other UEs within theradio range of the UE periodically to update a neighbors list; andtransmitting to the network a report comprising the neighbors list. 12.The method of claim 11, wherein transmitting to the network the reportis relayed through a non-mobile UE within the radio range of the UE. 13.The method of claim 11, wherein the report comprises an absolutelocation of at least one UE in the neighbors list.
 14. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the report comprises a relative information of atleast one UE in the neighbors list.
 15. The method of claim 11, whereinthe UE relays the report of a UE to the network if the UE is non-mobile.16. The method of claim 14, wherein the relative information comprises arelative location of the at least one UE in the neighbors list.
 17. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the relative location comprises relativedistance, relative time, or relative angle.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein the UE calculates the relative location of the at least one UEin the neighbors list in relationship to a reference UE.
 19. The methodof claim 14, wherein the relative information is compressed fromabsolute information in relationship to a reference UE.
 20. The methodof claim 1, wherein the step of engaging in the D2D communication in thefrequency spectrum further comprising: engaging in the D2D communicationin the frequency spectrum and outside the radio range of the controlnode.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein the control node comprises atransceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless data and aprocessing circuit coupled to the transceiver for performing the stepsof claim
 1. 22. A network topology management method for device todevice (D2D) communication in a network, adapted for a control node, andthe method comprising: receiving a request for an authorization for D2Dcommunication in a frequency spectrum; delivering the request for theauthorization for the D2D communication to the network; receiving theauthorization for the D2D communication in the frequency spectrum fromthe network; transmitting a first message comprising the authorizationfor D2D communication in the frequency spectrum; and receiving a reportcomprising a network topology information in response to transmittingthe first message.
 23. The method of claim 22 further comprisingreceiving the request for the authorization for the D2D communication inthe frequency spectrum from a first user equipment (UE).
 24. The methodof claim 22, wherein the authorization comprises an identification (ID)information.
 25. The method of claim 22, wherein the control node is oneof an evolved node B (eNB), a base station, or a relay station.
 26. Themethod of claim 24 further comprising transmitting the first message toa first UE wherein the ID information comprises a static ID assigned bythe network if the first UE is non-mobile.
 27. The method of claim 24further comprising transmitting the first message to the first UEwherein the ID information comprises a mobile ID assigned by the networkif the first UE is mobile.
 28. The method of claim 23 further comprisingthe control node transmitting the first message directly to the first UEif the first UE is within a radio range of the control node.
 29. Themethod of claim 23 further comprising the control node transmitting thefirst message to the first UE indirectly through a second UE if thefirst UE is not within the radio range of the control node.
 30. Themethod of claim 29, wherein the second UE is non-mobile and isauthorized with a static ID.
 31. The method of claim 22, wherein thestep of receiving the report comprising user equipment proximityinformation comprising: receiving from a first UE the report comprisinga neighbors list of the first UE; and updating a network topology basedon the neighbors list.
 32. The method of claim 22 further comprising:transmitting the network topology to the network to be recorded by thenetwork.
 33. The method of claim 22, wherein the network topologycomprises one or more UEs and one or more relationships among the one ormore UEs which access D2D resources of the network through the controlnode.
 34. The method of claim 33, wherein a relationship of the one ormore relationships among the one or more UEs is released if therelationship of the one or more relationships among the one or more UEsis absent from the network topology after a first predetermined period.35. The method of claim 32, wherein the neighbors list comprises anabsolute location of at least one UE in the neighbors list of the firstUE.
 36. The method of claim 32, wherein the neighbors list comprises arelative information of at least one UE in the neighbors list of thefirst UE.
 37. The method of claim 32, wherein a second UE relays theneighbors list of the first UE to the network.
 38. The method of claim36, wherein the relative information comprises a relative location ofthe at least one UE in the neighbors list.
 39. The method of claim 36,wherein the relative location comprises relative distance, relativetime, or relative angle.
 40. The method of claim 36, wherein the UEcalculates the relative location of the at least one UE in the neighborslist in relationship to a reference UE.
 41. The method of claim 36,wherein the relative information is compressed from absolute informationin relationship to a reference UE.
 42. The method of claim 22, whereinthe control node comprises a transceiver for transmitting and receivingwireless data and a processing circuit coupled to the transceiver forperforming the steps of claim 22.